Summary: health and economic burden of pertussis

The Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network Critical Pertussis Study: collaborative research in pediatric critical care medicine

OBJECTIVE

To provide an updated overview of critical pertussis to the pediatric critical care community and describe a study of critical pertussis recently undertaken.

SETTING

The six sites, seven hospitals of the Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network, and 17 outside sites at academic medical centers with pediatric intensive care units.

RESULTS

Despite high coverage for childhood vaccination, pertussis causes substantial morbidity and mortality in US children, especially among infants. In pediatric intensive care units, Bordetella pertussis is a community-acquired pathogen associated with critical illness and death. The incidence of medical and developmental sequelae in critical pertussis survivors remains unknown, and the appropriate strategies for treatment and support remain unclear. The Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network Critical Pertussis Study has begun to evaluate critical pertussis in a prospective cohort.

CONCLUSION

Research is urgently needed to provide an evidence base that might optimize management for critical pertussis, a serious, disabling, and too often fatal illness for U.S. children and those in the developing world.

An adolescent and adult formulation combined tetanus, diphtheria and five-component pertussis vaccine

Pertussis causes substantial morbidity among adolescents and adults, as well as other persons in contact with affected individuals. In the context of widespread childhood immunization, vaccination of adolescents and adults is a relatively new strategy for reducing the disease in all age groups. ADACEL is a tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis combination vaccine (incorporating pertussis toxoid, filamentous hemagglutinin, pertactin and fimbriae type 2 and 3 antigens) formulated for use in adolescents and adults based on similar products designed for infants and children. ADACEL vaccine is approved for use in Australia, Canada, Germany and the USA, and has been demonstrated to induce robust immune responses and acceptable levels of reactogenicity in clinical trials. Surveillance data from Canada, where ADACEL vaccine has been used in adolescents and adults in conjunction with ongoing childhood vaccination for several years, indicate an enhanced overall reduction in pertussis disease.